1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a powder container that contains powder used in an image forming apparatus, such as a printer, a facsimile, and a copier, a powder supplying device equipped with the powder container, and an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus that causes a developing device to develop an electrostatic latent image formed on a latent-image carrier, toner in the developing device is consumed according to image formation. To cope with this situation, there has been proposed a conventional image forming apparatus that includes a toner supplying device equipped with a toner container that contains toner so that the toner supplying device can supply the toner contained in the toner container to a developing device.
An image forming apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3492856 includes a toner supplying device that is equipped with a removable toner container that contains toner in a container body thereof, so that the toner supplying device supplies the toner contained in the toner container to a developing device. The image forming apparatus is configured such that a user can replace a toner container that has become empty because of use over time with a new toner container by pulling out the toner supplying device that is mounted on a predetermined mounting position within a body of the image forming apparatus from the body of the image forming apparatus.
In recent years, in view of environmental preservation, the toner container that has become empty because of use over time is collected from a user, and then subjected to predetermined recycling processing, such as cleaning or supplying of toner, so that the toner container can be reused as a recycled product.
There has been proposed another conventional image forming apparatus that is equipped with an information storage unit, such as an integrated circuit (IC) chip, for storing use history information on a toner container, so that the use history information can be written in the information storage unit of the toner container. The image forming apparatus transmits a radio signal of use log information (i.e., a toner container lot, a manufacturing date, an amount of remained toner, an amount of supplied toner, supplied time, a type, a storage period, recycling frequency, an upper limit of recycling frequency) to the information storage unit mounted on the toner container by using a communicating unit of the image forming apparatus. The information storage unit receives the radio signal transmitted from the communicating unit of the image forming apparatus, and stores the use log information in a nonvolatile memory thereof. Thus, when performing recycling processing on the toner container, it is possible to determine whether recycling is feasible by reading the use log information from the nonvolatile memory of the information storage unit.
Regarding the container body of the toner container, the container body made of resin such as polyethylene or polypropylene has been mainly used. When the information storage unit is attached to such a container body with an adhesive, it is difficult to bond the information storage unit to the container body because polyethylene and polypropylene are so-called adhesive-resistant material, so that the information storage unit may easily be removed from the container body. Therefore, the information storage unit may be removed from the container body during the above-mentioned recycling processing. If the information storage unit is removed from the container body as mentioned above, accumulated use history information of the toner container is lost, so that quality control of the recycled toner container may not be performed as desired (first problem).
Furthermore, when communication is performed between the communicating unit of the image forming apparatus and the information storage unit of the toner container, a noise may be applied to a radio signal used for the communication between the information storage unit and the communicating unit because of an electromagnetic wave emitted from a motor that drives the toner container to rotate. When a frequency band of the electromagnetic wave from the motor is close to a frequency band of the radio signal, the above-mentioned situation is more likely to occur (second problem).